Body Armor/ Traditional Martial art Equipment influenced Garment Design

I always interested and wanted to talk about this topic as there were many garment designs came up which were influenced by body armor or traditional martial arts equipment. The inspirations behind these designs were formed from a unique angle of functional garments, perhaps,even the spiritual meanings of these functional pieces. When "fashion" is overlapping with "function", some of the outcomes were rather surprising, and interesting.

Alexander McQueen 2007 collection
These masks was used in Japanese martial art for over 400 years, and perhaps to me,this is a rather direct interpretation taken from a form a traditional Japanese martial arts equipment






















Body Armor Inspired
In these designs, the basic concept of body armor, leather work were crossovered into modern fashion elements. The silhouettes of both eastern and western body protections where illustrated onto female figures, and formed a mixture of hard materials/shapes/line and a softer/feminine edge.






Garment Details

Elements of armor and such were widely used in current fashion designs. Here are some interesting things that might give us better idea of how they interperted.











Crossovers between cultures

These designs feature a classic silhouettes of European body armor and a use of traditional silk fabric and print.